The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Melissa Batai.ย Melissa is a freelance writer who covers topics ranging from personal finance to business to organics to food.ย She blogs atย Momโs Plansย where she shares her familyโs journey to healthier living and paying down debt.
You’ve likely heard stories about adult children who spend weeks cleaning out their elderly parents’ home that is full of trinkets from the 1950s as well as old games and toys their now grown children used to play with.ย When the parents pass away, the kids are left to sort through decades of “stuff” their parents acquired and never disposed of once they no longer needed them.
My husband and I are moving 1,750 miles from Chicago, IL to Tucson, AZ, in just two weeks.ย I’ve never moved that far (my farthest move previously was 7 hours when I was a grad student with very few possessions).ย Even though my husband’s new employer is giving us a moving allowance, I don’t want to move stuff we don’t need.
Over the last six weeks, I’ve been packing and weeding out clutter we don’t want to take with us.ย I was shocked and surprised by all the stuff we no longer need that we’ve held onto.
Baby Stuff
We have three kids, but our youngest “baby” is now 4 years old.ย Yet, downstairs I found:
- a crib,
- playpen sheets,
- baby and toddler clothes as small as size 12-18 months up to 4T that my daughter just outgrew,
- baby gates,
- outgrown Halloween costumes
Why, oh why, was I holding onto these things?ย The crib was wobbly by the time our third child outgrew it, so we weren’t even comfortable selling it.ย It just needed to be put out in the trash, but instead, it sat down in our basement for nearly two years.ย Why?
I listed the other items on Craigslist and a local mom group that I belong to, and all of the items were out of my house within 2 weeks, and I made close to $200.ย Why did it take a semi-cross country move to motivate me to sell these things?ย I could have done this two years ago, and enjoyed more space in my house, not to mention the extra cash.
Books
Another surprising find around our house?ย Books that I’ve held onto, in some cases, since college 20 years ago.ย What’s funny is that I haven’t picked up any of those books in years.ย I still love to read, but now I do my reading on the iPad or with books that I borrow from the library.
All of the many books went right to Goodwill.ย I had over 10 grocery bags full of books to giveaway!
Why Do We Hold On To Things That No Longer Suit Our Lifestyle?
Susan Bali, M.D. argues that we hold on to things because, “It’s hard to clear out the clutter.ย It’s also hard to continue to keep life clutter-free even if you do clear it out because ‘nature abhors a vacuum'” ย (Psychology Today).ย In other words, if you have empty space, you’ll find a way to fill it.
Keeping Items for Sentimental Reasons
What I found is that I held onto many of the baby items because I was sentimental about my children’s baby years.ย They’re growing so fast, and by keeping the crib, baby blankets, and tiny clothes, I felt like I still had a piece of those baby years that went so quickly.
Of course, that thought is completely irrational, which is why I got rid of all but a few outfits like the one I brought the babies home from the hospital in.
My husband, meanwhile, is sentimental about all of their little drawings and art projects.ย We have three bags worth downstairs that I still haven’t convinced him to trash.ย Here’s hoping that in the next two weeks, he parts with most of the artwork.
Just In Case I Need It
Another reason I personally kept a lot of stuff that I no longer needed was because I was worried I might need it someday.ย Years ago, when I had a desktop computer, I bought an ergonomic keyboard.ย I never ended up using it, but we kept it just in case my old keyboard died.
About six years later, it’s still in the basement collecting dust.ย I don’t even use a desktop now, just a laptop, so there’s no need for the keyboard.
So many of the things we think we might need aren’t really necessary.ย For most items, it’s easy to simply borrow them from friends or family temporarily or to rent them out, in the case of rarely used items.
Laziness
Finally, while I knew that a lot of the items downstairs need to go, decluttering and selling your stuff is time consuming.ย Honestly, if we weren’t faced with the prospect of a looming 1,750 mile move, I wouldn’t have devoted the hours I have to emptying out our basement.
It is far better to keep from accumulating clutter in the first place than spending hours purging it all.
How to Keep Your House Clutter Free
Now that I’ve cleared out the clutter and will have a clean slate, so to speak, in our new home in Arizona, my goal is to not let the clutter multiply again.ย I’ve set some ground rules for myself to keep the clutter at bay:
1.ย Ask yourself, “Do I really need this, or can I borrow it from someone else?”ย Our basement also held some tools that we bought 10 years ago for my husband to complete a project.ย Instead of buying the tools, we should have just borrowed or rented them.ย From now on, I want to see if there’s an alternative way to get something I may only need once or twice rather than buying it and letting it sit, unused.
2.ย Keep an area of your house where you can put things you want to get rid of.ย Once a month, I plan to do a sweep of my house and look for stuff that we no longer use or haven’t used in quite some time.ย I’ll put them in a box for donation or garage sale.ย By doing this monthly, I’ll be able to keep the clutter down.ย (I’ll also have to hide the box somewhere so my husband won’t come and take things out of the box and put them back in our home.ย He’s sneaky that way.)
3.ย Practice being content.ย So many times, we buy things just because we think they’ll make us look better or feel better when what we have already is often plenty.
Stuff usually doesn’t make us feel better.ย In fact, the opposite can occur.ย We can feel worse after buying something because we have less money (or more debt) after the purchase and more stuff cluttering our lives.
I’m trying to practice being a minimalist with my as well as my kids’ wardrobes.ย We don’t need deep walk in closets with tons of clothes.ย I do laundry nearly every day.ย Surely 10 or 20 pieces that we each love is plenty for our wardrobes. ย ย Of course, in our culture of more is better, paring my clothing down this much is a bit radical.
In the last month and a half, we’ve easily gotten rid of 1/3 of our possessions, and as the stuff goes out, I literally feel lighter and freer.ย Our house has more room; we’re no longer drowning in a home full of possessions we no longer need.ย I can’t wait to move into our new house and see all the space we’ll have!
How about you all? What things are you holding onto that you no longer need?ย What’s your favorite way to stay clutter free?
Share your experiences by commenting below!ย
***Photo courtesy ofย https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/227041790/in/
